Permission To Land (2003)

This one is for all you punks who've been flogging Andrew WK around for the past two years as the savior of rock n' roll, when really, he's just the new Wesley Willis with a better backing band. With all the "return to rock" stylings happening in America with the aforementioned WK, the Donnas and the like, the English give us The Darkness: bigger, louder, with really fucking bad teeth.

The Darkness are probably the best and worst thing to happen to music--no wait, the worst thing is Dashboard Confessional. The Darkness are just rehashing 70's and 80's heavy metal, sounding like a bombastic mix of AC/DC, Iron Maiden, and Queen. They have a singer who struts around in leopard print cat suits and might just be the ugliest rock star since Ozzy Osbourne. The bassist looks like a refugee from the Village people. And they're British--really, really bad teeth.

Musically, "Permission to Land" is the most over-the-top rock album in at least a decade. Justin Hawkins vocals can only be described as the most brutal falsetto ever in rock. Picture on opera singer on stage with Def Leppard. Hearing this guy sing "Get your hands off my woman MOOOTHEERFUUUUUUUCKEEEER!!!" is enough to cause a ten car pile up on the Hollywood Freeway. Be sure to check out the Maiden stylings of "Black Chuck"--"That dog don't give a fuck" and the sheer cock rock goodness of the lead single, "I Believe in a Thing Called Love."

This is truly a band that goes up to 11. Seriously, its funniest and most entertaining music I've heard in a long time. I can't wait to see what they come up with live...